Artist Spotlight - Karel Vereycken — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Biography

Born in 1957 in the port city of Antwerp, Belgium, the Franco-Belgian painter, engraver and historian Karel VEREYCKEN graduated from the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels and trained in engraving at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, where he obtained a certificate of passage 'with distinction.'

The Coincidence of Opposites, 2026. Intaglio etching on zinc, 35 x 50 cm.

Today he concentrates on writing about art history, producing audio guides and of course watercolors and especially what he does best : engravings.

Fearless Goddess, 2026. Intaglio etching on zinc, 30 x 40 cm.

As a member of the French Fédération nationale de l’estampe, he confirmed his technical mastery at Atelier63 and continued to perfect his skills in the Montreuil workshop of Danish engraver Bo Halbirk.

Be The Peace You Want for All, 2026. Intaglio etching on zinc, 28 x 40 cm.

His work has been featured in Top Investable Artists 2026, Visual Art Journal, Spotlight, FineArtsNews, 't Pallieterke, Divide, Modern Renaissance Art Magazine, Art Lovers Magazine, Closeup, 100 Artists of Europe (book), Arts to Hearts Magazine, Artio Magazine, Art Star Magazine, etc.

Tree of Life, 2026. Intaglio etching on zinc, 40 x 23 cm.

Besides numerous Honorable Mentions and Talent Prizes, his recent Key Awards:
--Universal Genius – Tribute to Leonardo da Vinci: Prize awarded in March 2026 by the Effetto Arte Foundation in Milan, Italy.
--Mona Lisa Prize awarded in December 2025 at the Galerie Mona Lisa in Paris. --Top in Category Award (Printmaking) for his engraving Farmers of Sudan in the 11th International Artist of the Month Contest by the Circle Foundation for the Arts (CFA).
--Collectors Art Prize – Art Legends of Our Time: A biennial prestigious prize awarded in 2025 by Contemporary Art Curator Magazine.

Winter in Argenteuil, 2026. Intaglio etching on zinc, 30 x 20 cm.

Artist Statement

What always attracted me in painting and imagining is the way art “makes visible” things and ideas that are “not visible” as such in the simple visible world but which “appear” in the minds of the viewer.

Garden of Argenteuil, 2025. Intaglio etching on zinc, 40 x 23 cm.

It took me over twenty years to sort out the difference between “symbols” (a “convention” accepted among a group or a code system designed to communicate a secret meaning), and “metaphor” which by assembling things unusual, by irony and paradox, allows the individual mind to “discover” the meaning the painter intended to transmit.

H2O, 2025. Intaglio etching on zinc, 20 x 30 cm.

Such an approach offers the joy of discovery and surprise, a deep human quality. Modern art started as a non-figurative form of symbolism till “contemporary” art brought many artists to put an axe into the very idea of poetical meaning.

View on the Thames, London 1902, 2025. Intaglio etching on zinc, 20 x 30 cm.

In 1957, the CIA sponsored, under various covers and often without the artists even knowing about it, many “abstract” artists to promote a form of art that it considered coherent with its ideology of “free enterprise.”

Hommage to Belgian Sculptor Herman Cornelis, 2025. Intaglio etching on zinc, 20 x 30 cm.

So what inspires me is true human culture, be it Chinese painting of the Song dynasty, the Buddhist sculptures of Gandhara, the early Flemish masters or the magnificent bronze heads of Ifé in current Nigeria.

Fun in the Snow, 2025. Intaglio etching on zinc, 40 x 23 cm.

To me, real art exists in a "cosmic" dimension above time and location. The object might be "ancient" or "modern," "Eastern" or "Western," in terms of its physical creation, but the art within it transcends those categories. Only contributions to universal art shine forever, everywhere.

Stairway to Heaven, 2018. Intaglio etching on zinc, 27 x 38 cm.

Charles de Gaulle's best friend was the erudite art historian André Malraux. In his 1947 book Le Musée imaginaire, he wrote that the birth of photography would completely change mankind’s relationship with art, enabling a fruitful dialogue between the most beautiful creations of art through a visual "data bank."

The Return of Poseidon, 2022. Watercolors sur Arches paper, 60 x 40 cm.

I try to contribute to the “immortal” dialogue among artworks of all times and cultures, as described in André Malraux’s Le Musée imaginaire.
Bridging the distances in space and time, religion and philosophy, stands the celebration of unique human capacities, the beauty of compassion, empathy and love.

https://artkarel.com/